Instructor-Student Interaction
The course is designed to include regular and substantive interaction and communication between the student and instructor. Regardless of modality, a fully-realized educational experience provides students with ample opportunity to ask questions, receive answers, and obtain feedback and guidance from instructors.
Recommendation 3.5: Balancing Interaction
Plan how to balance synchronous (same time) and asynchronous interactions (own time) in your course. Consider how students benefit from both forms of participation.
Background Information
What is this?
Students interact in multiple ways during their learning, both synchronously (same time) and asynchronously (own time). Both approaches offer distinct benefits and, at the same time, require planning and attention to challenges.
Why is this important?
Students’ learning benefits from regular and substantive interaction. Synchronous activities, whether face-to-face or online, allow for real-time engagement. Asynchronous activities afford flexibility and can make it easier for students to participate. Both forms of delivery can be made more meaningful through careful planning. Keeping in mind both the importance of engagement and flexibility, carefully consider the balance of synchronous and asynchronous elements of your course.
How to implement
Depending on the size and nature of your course, both online and face-to-face courses may use learning technologies to enable both synchronous and asynchronous interaction. The main tool for synchronous interactions in person is typically the classroom. For online synchronous interactions, the main tool is Zoom in Canvas. Tools for face-to-face include in-class polling, such as Top Hat or Canvas surveys. Asynchronous options include Piazza, Canvas discussion boards, chatrooms, as well as journaling, blogging, group projects, and reflective writing.
Synopsis from Self-Review
Use synchronous time for high-impact active learning interactions where there is a clear benefit from hearing from each other (such as gathering ideas to solve a problem or advance a project). Lecturing is seldom the best use of synchronous course meeting time. Also, consider what content can be made available asynchronously. All students benefit from engaging and interacting in multiple ways, both in and outside the classroom.
How to Put into Practice
Instruction or activities can be delivered synchronously (in-person or Zoom) or asynchronously (outside of class or online). To determine the best balance of synchronous and asynchronous components in your course, consider your course learning outcomes, student needs, and the potential impact on your workload.
Choose an approach that matches your goals
Consider your specific goals before deciding the balance of synchronous (same time) and asynchronous (own time) activities. For instance, a course that focuses heavily on oral presentations might seem to require many synchronous sessions in an online format, but the use of video recordings and asynchronous discussion spaces can provide similar practice and even more time for thoughtful analysis of peer presentations than a single, synchronous event.
As you are developing course activities, think through questions such as: Does the activity require students to interact with you? With each other? Or is it something that could be done without coming together? What content can be made available asynchronously for students without reliable technology, in different time zones, or with other issues that impact synchronous participation?
Balance Benefits and Challenges
Synchronous and asynchronous approaches offer distinct possibilities and require attention to particular challenges:
Synchronous activities
These activities allow real-time engagement and interaction, including almost anything in a Zoom or face-to-face classroom, such as mini-lectures, discussions, demonstrations, problem-solving, and small group activities. Synchronous activities are often best for things such as answering questions while students complete problem sets, vigorous discussions, or office hours. Technical or scheduling difficulties (e.g., internet connectivity and bandwidth issues, learning online from significantly different time zones, or limited access to web conferencing tools in different countries) may cause issues with synchronous sessions. Consider recording sessions live so students can access content later. See strategies and tools outlined below for more specifics.
Asynchronous activities
These activities offer more flexibility and can make it easier for more students to participate. Activities may include peer-to-peer group work, recorded student presentations, quizzes, responses to written prompts, and/or discussion. Staying on track and time management can be especially challenging for students in courses with many asynchronous activities. Creating regular weekly due dates helps students with these challenges.
Student Needs
Streamline your course by planning for common student needs in synchronous and asynchronous formats.
- Provide a poll at the start of the term to determine whether any students are likely to struggle with internet bandwidth or other concerns that could hinder participation in synchronous components—and to check for specific concerns about managing asynchronous components.
- During online synchronous sessions, be flexible regarding student camera use—being able to see students’ faces has benefits, but tying webcam use to grades can create equity and accessibility challenges.
- For in-person synchronous sessions, design for flexibility in how students participate, such as by using a mix of full-class and small-group or pairs interactions, using a Minute Paper or Muddiest Point to ensure that everyone has a chance to think before you invite students to speak, setting up a queue of speakers, or by asking students to contribute to shared notes document.
Large Classes
Large classes pose unique challenges for real-time interaction, whether in-person or online. Here are strategies and tools for facilitating interaction in these settings.
- For online synchronous sessions, consider chat, Zoom polling, or Microsoft Forms for interaction and feedback.
- Use the Fishbowl Discussion as a recurring structure in the course. In a Fishbowl Discussion, a small group of students (“inside the fishbowl”) is assigned to discuss a topic or prompt while the rest of the class listens actively (“outside the fishbowl”).
Additional Resources
- UWSP Zoom Support: UWSP Information Technology provides many resources for using Zoom for both meetings and teaching.